“The Doctrine of Satan” Part 1

I would first like to clear up an error I had a couple of weeks ago. I said that the best I could see Cherubim’s were not angels. With the study of Satan I must conclude that they are. There is some disagreement on exactly what Cherubim’s actually are; some believe angels, other believes they are the living creatures, and others have other ideas. I have not had an extended study on the subject but for now conclude that they are angels.

The reason for this change is that Satan was a Cherubim before the fall and since he is it leads me to believe that Cherubim’s are angels. As we look more into whom Satan is we must first learn who he was; Satan was without a doubt an angel but not just an angel but a high leader of angels. If we look at Ezekiel 28:12 – 18 we will see Satan before the fall in verses 12 – 15 and after the fall in verses 16 – 18. We will notice in verse 14 “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.” That he was an appointed Angel of God that was on the “Holy Mountain” of God is the Holies of Holies were God’s throne is and Satan was the chief angel, he had a large following and he himself protected Gods throne. He was simply one of a kind. Verse 15 tells us “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” He served God well until he got pride and wanted to be God; this is where “…iniquity was found in thee.” Satan became jealous of God and wanted to take His throne and that was his sin.

Secondly let us focus on Isaiah 14:12 – 17. In verse 12 we find that his heavenly name was Lucifer and that he is a fallen angel. (12.) "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! In verse 13 - 14 we find his sin and it was his jealousy of God. “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (14.) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” In verse 15 God describes his punishment “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” In verse 16 God tells us when we see his he will only remind us of what happened in the Garden and sin. “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;” Every time Satan is mentioned or remembered it is not what God created him for or the blessings that God gave him in his blessed rank; but we remember sin and the condemnation.

Thirdly, I also believe when he fell he was so powerful and followed so closely that he carried with him to hell a third of the angelic population. Revelation 12:3 - 4 "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (4.) And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." There is no doubt that this "great red dragon" is Satan notice verse (9.) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." And these are his demons. Sorry about the short article and we will look at more next week.

“The Doctrine of Angels” Part 3

We now come to our third and final part of what Baptist believes about Angels. As we have look at a lot about and hopefully learned a lot about them we want to conclude this study looking at their duties or their employment as servants of God. We must understand that all of Gods creation serves Him in some form, even the lost and worst among us God uses for His own glory.

We learn first Angels praise the lord and do His commandments. Just as all of God creation, in finality of all things they were created to bless the Lords name and do what so ever He commands. Psalms 103:20 "Bless the LORD, ye his angels..." Angels rejoice in the salvation of men. Not because of what man has done by making a decision or choice, not because man has chosen to turn over a new leaf, and not because man has chosen to change his own will, no, not at all, but because of the miraculous power and work of God to change mans will and to cause him to react contrary to his own wicked nature. Salvation is a miracle because the only way it can be accomplished is by the power of God. Angels are messengers of God. We have since creation seen the angels of God communicating with man. In fact the name “angel” itself means - to dispatch as a deputy or a messenger – in both Hebrew and Greek. We also see God use the term when speaking to the seven churches in Asia Minor "...The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches..." Revelation 1:20 – these seven “Stars” or “Angels” are the seven Pastors of these seven churches. Whether Pastors or Angels we are all messengers of God to His creation. They execute God’s purposes. "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." 2 Kings 19:35 Here we see an “angel of the Lord” kill all them that were in this camp. Most people will find it hard to believe that God would send an angel to kill but He does. Let us not forget that God has killed many of people over time and will kill many more in the future, it is called “The Tribulation of this world” and eventually God will kill everyone on this earth. God can use anyone or anything to do His blessed will, even His Angels. Angels gave the law of God. That’s right Angels delivered to man some of the laws of God. Acts 7:53 “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” The word “disposition” means - arrangement, that is, institution – it was not their law but Gods law being delivered by His Angels. We as man should want the laws of God followed and served by mankind but we have a hard time simply following it ourselves. “…and have not kept it.” Acts 7:53 This is why Pastors sometimes sound like hypocrites is because we too fail Gods laws, but Angels do not because if they do they fall right into hell. Angels were used to minister to Christ. What an ordeal the “Son of man” had just encountered with Satan and it must have affected Him greatly and made Him weak in the flesh as we are when we battle Satan and refuse his temptations. Matthew 4:11 "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." We sometimes forget that Christ Jesus (while incarnate with the Son of God) was also simply a man and suffered as we do. They came to help Him get strong again. Angels take a great interest in divine truth and learn through the church. We are never alone in our church services, God is there and His Angels are also there. They are there to see us bring praise to God and also to hear the truth being taught in the house of God. 1 Peter 1:12 "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into."

“The Doctrine of Angels” Part 2

This week we continue to look at the doctrine on Angels. This week we want to focus on the “Orders, And Ranks Among Angels.” Last week we learned that Angels are created beings and are servants of God just as mankind is. We also learned last week that Angels are spirits and have no bodies but can on occasion take on the form of a human body to serve the purpose of God. We also know that Angels are not to be worshiped in any way; just as none of Gods creation is to be worshiped. "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind," Colossians 2:18 also in Revelation 22:8 – 9 John was told not to worship them because they are “fellowservant’s” with mankind. There is not a man alive who can be worshiped or bowed to in any way. Any worship of Gods creation takes away from God’s glory and that is a no, no, and has been from the beginning. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (5.) Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" Exodus 20:4 – 5

Now we want to look at the “Orders, And Ranks Among Angels.” We do not know a whole lot about Angels except what the bible most certainly concludes that Angels do have an order and rank among them. We know that there are at least one “archangel” and his name is Michael. An “archangel” is defined in the Greek as - a chief angel – This word comes from the Greek word “archō” which means - to be first in political rank or power - reign or rule over – with this being said we know that Michael is the top ranked Angel. "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 1:9 now what we are not 100% certain that there are more than one single archangel, however the scriptures seems to conclude that Michael would be the only one. Notice back in Jude 9 where God said “Michael the archangel” and notice the word “the”, now let us look in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:" and we find that word “the” again which may conclude that Michael is a one – of – a – kind Angel and that he is chief among all angels. However with this being all said it does prove that God has a ranking system among His Angels, however we simply do not know too much about it. How about Gabriel it seems he also occupies a relatively high place among the angels. Although the word “archangel” is never used with his name therefore we must conclude that whatever rank among the Angels Gabriel has he is not a chief angel. But he was a good servant of God because we see him several times in the scriptures and hundreds if not thousands of years apart as he spoke to Daniel and then Zacharias and then to Joseph and Mary about the Lord Jesus Christ. And who knows God still could be using Gabriel or other Angels to communicate with man even today while we are totally unaware. Hebrews 13:2 "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

In conclusion I want to look at Cherubims; there is no scriptural proof that Cherubims are at all Angels as some believe. The Hebrew tells us that Cherubims are - imaginary figures - therefore I must conclude that that is exactly what they are. Genesis 3:24 "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." However this is not proof that they are anything more than “imaginary figures” because God can make anything look real. We will conclude this study on “Angels” next week.

Angels Part 1

This week’s doctrinal study brings us to one of my favorite subjects to study and teach and that is Angels. I love this subject because it is one of the least subjects studied in the bible. Most people either have a misunderstanding about angels or they know little to nothing on the subject of truth. Actually the word of God has much so say on the subject and much to teach on the subject. In these articles we are certainly not able to cover every thing on these subjects that we cover on Wednesday nights however we do try to cover all we can. I believe the first point I want to look at with angels is who they are, angels are created beings and they were created to serve God. Angels are not man and men do not become angels. Angels are spirits and do not have bodies but they can take on bodies to serve Gods purpose. They are also sexless, in other words they are neither male nor female however every time they have been seen or God has called them by name they have always been male. I know that most times when one thinks of an angel they are mostly blonde, young, very pretty, and female, however this is un-provable and un-scriptural. Most people today have images or statues of some sort of angels and these are known as false graven images and a sort of worship just as pictures of Jesus Christ are and should not be in our possession. If we do not have actual images and statues then they are false however even if we did we would still be forbidden to have them of angels. Someone cannot have an image of someone else and call it me, that would be false and there are no actual images of Jesus Christ.

Angels are like everything else except God they are created beings, Colossians 1:16 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:” they were created to worship God and to serve God just as everything else that was created. Angels are pure spirits which means that they have no bodies. Luke 24:39 “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Although those believers that have died in Christ Jesus is also at present time body less until Jesus returns and gives them a new glorified body. Angels constitute an order of creatures higher than man. Angels were created higher than man and they are more powerful that man. But in finality we will be higher than them because we are the children of the Living God. However right now Angels are said to be greater than man in might - 2 Peter 2:11 "Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord." We also see in the Lords resurrection when the angel descended from heaven he caused an earthquake and moved the stone from in front of the tomb alone. Matthew 28:2 "And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it." Angels also are sexless and neither do they marry Matthew 22:30 "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Angels are deathless or they never die. Luke 20:35 - 36 "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: (36.) Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." We do know that angels sin and when they do their neither grace, mercy, nor salvation for them they simply fall to everlasting damnation. 2 Peter 2:4 "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" So with all this being said we can see why we do not want to be angels but rather children of the most high God. More next week.